


Maimed

by alcimines



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:46:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3827782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alcimines/pseuds/alcimines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after a brutal war between humans and mutants, a battered pair of survivors try to find a little peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maimed

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this quite a few years ago. It's a grim little tale born from the especially ugly outlook on the future that Marvel keeps feeding us. Some aspects of this story may come across as being out of date if you're following the current X-Men comics.

MAIMED

 _"He jests at scars, that never felt a wound."_  
\- Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

The war was over. The peace that followed was far from perfect - people were still killing and dying. However, the worst had clearly passed. The surviving power-blocs had signed treaties and drawn boundaries and were making a reasonable effort to respect them. People all over the world could legitimately hope that better days had finally come. And amidst the wreckage of what was left, the task of rebuilding tentatively began.

Suddenly, the soldiers who had spent so many long years fighting the war found themselves without purpose.

Most of the soldiers returned home. Often they found that there wasn't much left of home to return to.

A sad few couldn't give up on what the war had made of them - they became criminals, mercenaries, warlords, or wanderers.

And those that the war had left crippled and broken simply tried to survive from one day to the next.

* * *

It was the beginning of a new day. Sitting in a battered rocking chair on the porch of her home, Emma Frost sipped from a cup of pine-needle tea and tried to ignore the sunrise.

Once, she had loved both sunrises and sunsets. But now the red and gold colors flaring on the horizon brought only bad memories.

Ten years ago, from aboard a ship in the Mediterranean, Emma had looked eastwards in surprise and wondered why the sun seemed to be rising two hours early. It took a while for her to realize that she was watching the nuclear destruction of Rome from almost a hundred miles away.

Almost a million people died in a split-second. Even more died in the weeks and months that followed. And to this day, ten years later, nobody had a clue who had murdered Rome or why.

As often happened nowadays, Emma's mind wandered.

Eventually, a gentle touch on Emma's shoulder brought her back from her reverie. Emma smiled up at her partner and lover, finished her tea, and carried her empty mug back into the kitchen. It was going to be a warm day. And they had a lot of work to do.

* * *

Before the war, Emma had owned a pair of shoes that cost about the same amount as a years pay for a typical big-city fireman. Now, as she used a hoe to weed her garden, she was barefoot.

Likewise, her clothes were not up to her former standards. All she was wearing was a worn and heavily patched one-piece dress that modestly fell below her knees.

Straightening up, Emma stretched in an effort to work the kinks out of her back. Squinting at the sun, Emma judged that it was approximately noon. Laying down her hoe, Emma walked to the nearby fence. Just inside the fence, a bucket filled with water rested in the shade of a tree.

Scooping a cup of water from the bucket, Emma took a long drink. It was a very warm day and they had been working in the garden since early morning.

Emma refilled the cup and looked towards the other person working in the garden. The other woman was dressed as raggedly as Emma in tattered cutoffs and a faded, yellow t-shirt that was riddled with holes. At the moment, she was half-hunched over, meticulously hoeing a row of beans on the far side of the garden.

Walking over to the other woman, Emma noted that this part of the garden was almost done. When given a simple, easy-to-understand task, her partner was a ferociously hard worker.

"Ororo," said Emma softly.

Ororo looked up, her concentration broken. Then she blinked her one remaining eye in grateful surprise at the sight of Emma offering her a cup of water.

Since the left side of Ororo's face was badly scarred, it was often difficult for others to read her expressions. But this time the wide, cheerful, smile the covered half of Ororo's face was unmistakable.

Taking the tin cup from Emma, Ororo downed its contents in one long swallow. Then she wiped her mouth, handed the cup back, and started to return to work.

Emma gently grasped Ororo's arm. "No. It's time for lunch," she said.

Ororo hesitated and looked uncertainly over the row she hadn't finished hoeing.

Brushing a few stray wisps of long, white hair from Ororo's cheek, Emma said, "After lunch. We'll finish then."

Ororo nodded and dropped her hoe. Emma firmly cupped Ororo's face in her hands and turned the other woman's head slightly so that she could check Ororo's empty eye-socket. There was no point in trying to get Ororo to wear a patch since she would always lose it eventually. So when they worked in the garden, Emma was careful to make sure that dirt didn't get into the socket. It might cause an infection.

Although she didn't like the inspection, Ororo didn't resist. And once Emma was satisfied that the Ororo was okay, she let go of her.

Ororo gave Emma a slightly reproachful look.

"Come on," said Emma, trying not to smile.

Holding hands, the two women left the garden and walked to the boathouse. It was the only fully intact building on the old school property and it was now their home.

* * *

Lunch was a simple fish and potato stew. They still had half a bin of last fall's potatoes in the root cellar. And Emma had become pretty adept with her home-made fishing pole - the lake had a good-sized fish population.

They were prospering. Emma and Ororo had gotten through the last winter without a single hungry night. That was a considerable improvement over the previous year.

Of course, having a weather goddess on the premises was handy. Ororo couldn't stand to see the plants in their garden damaged by hail or parched for a lack of rain-water. So their simple one acre garden was remarkably productive.

It hadn't always been that way. When they first got back to the school property, it had been too late in the season to start farming and there was little food left in the area. Emma had been forced to do whatever was necessary to get through that first winter.

Her two best sources had been a National Guard supply sergeant and the leader of a small, local biker gang. A night in bed was worth enough MREs or canned food to keep Emma and Ororo fed for three or four days.

Neither man had been cruel or demanding, and both had respected Emma's one ironclad rule: Ororo was off-limits. Emma knew she had been luckier than she deserved. She had treated desperate people far worse when she was royalty in the Hellfire club.

After lunch, the two woman bustled around the kitchen in a by-now familiar pattern of washing, wiping, and cleaning. Emma was up on her toes, reaching to put the last plate away in the cupboard when Ororo decided that she had been a good girl for too long.

Suddenly, Emma's dress was pushed up over her breasts. Standing behind Emma, Ororo began nibbling on the back of Emma's neck while her hands roamed over Emma's body. Emma didn't bother with underwear when they were doing field work.

Emma carefully finished putting the plate into the cupboard, closed the cupboard door, and then leaned forward with her hands braced against the counter top.

Ororo peeled Emma's dress the rest of the way off and unconcernedly tossed it onto the wooden kitchen floor. Then she began lightly tracing her tongue along the smooth, raised pattern of muscles on Emma's upper back. All the while, Ororo's hands were very busy.

Closing her eyes, Emma let out a low moan of pure pleasure. Ororo took that as the signal to drag Emma into the bedroom.

* * *

_Sabertooth killed little Rahne Sinclair while she was on a mission near Quebec. Emma didn't know the details - and didn't want to know them. Sam Guthrie and Danielle Moonstar found Rahne's body and immediately buried her with their own hands. The very few times anyone made an effort to learn more about Rahne's death, Sam and Danni would simply shrug and tell everyone that Rahne had died quickly._

_You didn't have to be a telepath to know that they were lying._

_They finally caught up with Sabertooth in the Cascade mountains of Oregon. Emma hadn't dared to intervene as Sam and Danni strung Sabertooth up from a stout tree branch with logging chain and then spent the better part of two days killing him._

* * *

Emma woke with a sobbing gasp of sheer horror. She was lying in bed next to Ororo and had dozed off.

Ororo gently, but firmly, pulled the trembling Emma towards herself so that her head was resting against Ororo's shoulder. And then Ororo carefully stroked Emma's hair while humming an African lullaby that was millenia-old.

* * *

They went back to work. Emma ferociously chopped at the soil in an effort to drive the memories away.

It was late afternoon when Emma realized that Ororo had dropped her hoe and was standing stock-still while staring at a nearby hilltop.

On the hilltop was the old Xavier family graveyard. Once almost forgotten, during the war it had seen a lot of new additions.

A slim figure clad in tan and brown clothing stood with one hand resting on Professor Xavier's headstone. It was too far to make out that person's facial features, but Emma immediately recognized both the brown hair, slender shape, and characteristic stance.

So did Ororo.

* * *

_The senior members of the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese governments were attending a secret conference in Seoul. The subject of the meeting was to determine the most efficient means of exterminating the mutants living on the Asian periphery._

_The severed heads of the Japanese Prime Minister, the Chinese Secretary General, the Korean President, and their most trusted aides and bodyguards were found neatly arrayed on the conference table. The whole macabre scene was arranged so that it would be the first thing anyone saw if they opened the door to the meeting room._

_The Chinese, Korean, and Japanese governments assumed that it was Magneto's work and called off their project._

_But Emma thought she knew who was really responsible._

* * *

A wild, inarticulate cry that wasn't a word erupted from Ororo and broke Emma from her momentary trance. Then Ororo fled the garden, vaulting the fence with effortless strength and running at full speed towards the hilltop.

The figure standing next to Professor Xavier's grave likewise began sprinting downhill, calling out Ororo's name as she ran.

Kitty and Ororo were still hugging one another when Emma arrived.

"I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead," Kitty repeated over and over in a choked voice.

Still clinging to Ororo, Kitty caught sight of Emma as she approached. Her eyes suddenly went hard.

* * *

At first, Ororo couldn't stop touching Kitty. It was as if she couldn't believe that the younger woman as really, truly, there.

It took a while, but Kitty finally gave up on trying to get Ororo to say something.

Wordless, they cuddled together on the couch. Kitty was curled up in a ball, with her eyes closed and her head resting on Ororo's lap. Ororo had her fingers tangled in Kitty's hair. Emma stood in the doorway to the kitchen, watching quietly.

From that angle, it was possible for Emma to imagine that Kitty was still a teenager and that Ororo was still whole. Soon the woman would take the girl down to Salem Center for an afternoon of shopping. Just before going home, they would stop for ice cream and Kitty would ask awkward, hesitant questions about boys and being a woman that would receive wise and kind answers.

Emma shook her head, driving the fantasy away. Those gentler days were long gone.

* * *

_A cartel of European and American mutants had came up with a plan to unleash a series of carefully designed gene-active diseases that would only kill non-mutants._

_Ororo and Kitty captured Mystique in Copenhagen just hours before the plague was to be released. Mystique knew where the cartel's base was, but refused to cooperate. Telepathic assistance was on the way, but Ororo and Kitty had to immediately know the location of the research facility._

_When Emma and Kurt finally arrived at the house where Mystique was being held prisoner, Ororo and Kitty were long gone. They were in southern Germany shutting down the germ-warfare operation and probably saving the lives of millions - or even billions - of innocent people._

_Emma and Kurt heard moans coming from a room._

_Suspecting a trap, they carefully opened the door. Hearing them enter, Mystique began gibbering for mercy. Kurt stared in shock at what was left of Mystique as Emma vomited uncontrollably._

_Without a word, Kurt turned on his heel and walked out of the X-Men. Eventually, he took holy orders with the Catholic Church. A few years later he was murdered by a fanatic as he was hearing confession._

* * *

It was well past midnight. Ororo was dozing on the couch in the living room. Kitty and Emma shared pine-needle tea at the kitchen table. The only light was from an oil lamp made of hand-molded clay that had been fired in a wooden stove. Emma had stolen the design from a book on Mesopotamian archaeology. It was ugly, but worked surprisingly well.

Both of the women sitting at the table were doing their best to ignore the fact that they didn't particularly like each other. Emma took the opportunity to examine Kitty closer. The younger woman looked thin, tired, and hard. She was wearing a mixture of military and civilian clothing. The jacket looked like it incorporated some kind of body armor. The well-worn handle of a knife peeked out from one of Kitty's boot-tops. And a holstered pistol and a sheathed katana - a Japanese long sword - were resting on the table near to hand.

"What's wrong with Ororo?" asked Kitty.

Emma shook her head, "Except for the eye and the scarring, nothing physical. There's no brain damage. She's just... uninterested in the larger world around her."

Kitty nodded, "Any idea how it happened?"

Emma looked away, "Yes."

* * *

_Erik Lensherr's descent to becoming the thing he thought he most despised finally reached bottom with the formation of his Young Guard. They were mutant children, none older than thirteen, who were raised to unquestioningly revere and serve Magneto._

_It was incredible that Magneto didn't see the parallels to the Hitler Youth. Or maybe he did and simply didn't care any longer._

_The final assault on Magneto's Antarctic base involved the last surviving U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, an ad-hoc battalion composed of the elite soldiers of eight nations, and a half-dozen X-Men. While the conventional forces battled combat robots and lobotomized human slaves, the X-Men struck at Magneto himself._

_Storm, White Queen, Juggernaut, Wolverine, Cannonball, and Sunspot savagely cut through Magneto's defenses until he had nothing left to send out against them except his young fanatics._

_There was too great of a chance that Magneto would escape if they took too much time, so Ororo ordered everyone else to go after Magneto while she engaged the Young Guard._

_By the time Emma and Logan got back to Ororo, she was kneeling on a blood-soaked concrete pad, surrounded by the broken and electrocuted bodies of children._

_She hadn't spoken since._

* * *

"Emma?" prompted Kitty. Emma seemed lost in thought.

Emma snapped back to reality and rubbed her eyes. "Sorry," she said. "It was a long day."

Kitty nodded slowly, watching Emma carefully, "What happened then?"

Looking into her tea cup, Emma replied, "The surface ships were sunk in the fighting. But there was an Indian submarine still in one piece. They picked us and the surviving soldiers up. When we got back to what was left of the United States, we didn't bother to check in with anyone or make a report. We simply started walking until we got here. There wasn't much left, but I decided that I was tired of walking and Ororo stayed with me. Logan kept on going. He said something about a cabin up north that he was going to visit."

Kitty nodded again. She had a good idea where Logan had gone.

"What about Sam, Roberto, and Cain?" asked Kitty, even though she was sure she already knew the answer to the question.

Emma rubbed her eyes, "Magneto killed them in that last fight."

Both women were silent for a long while.

Kitty continued as gently as possible, "What do you see when you use your telepathy on Ororo?"

Emma hesitated before answering, but then went on, "I'm not a telepath any longer. About half-way through that last fight, I ran into a powerful psionic who was working for Magneto. He had some unusual abilities and I was having a hard time with him until Sam took him down. After that, I couldn't read minds or use my powers."

Kitty kept a straight face, but didn't bother to say she was sorry. They both knew that as far as Kitty was concerned, the world was probably a better, safer place now that the White Queen was powerless.

"It's late," said Kitty, trying to change to subject.

"You can stay as long as you like and you can sleep on the couch," said Emma. "I'll wake Ororo. But there's something you should know..."

Emma hesitated.

"What?" asked Kitty.

"We only have one bed. Ororo and I share it."

The expression on Kitty's face didn't change in the slightest. And Emma found that oddly worrying.

"Nothing to say?" asked Emma.

"Quit trying to shock me, Emma," Kitty replied with a snort. "I was fourteen when Ororo met Yukio. I've known since then that Ororo is bi."

Emma cocked her head at the younger woman, "I wasn't trying to shock you. But you're taking this far better than I thought you would."

Kitty pushed the cup of tea away and gathered up her weapons as she got to her feet, "You want a reaction? Okay. Here's a reaction: if I decide that you're exploiting Ororo's condition, then I'll kill you. Is that better?"

Despite the fact that Emma knew Kitty wasn't joking, a slight smile came over her face.

"Yes," Emma answered. Then she stood up, "I'll put Ororo to bed. Then you can get some sleep."

It wasn't a very restful night. Ororo would awaken every couple of hours and get out of bed to check and see if Kitty was really there.

* * *

The next day, Emma and Ororo went back to working in the garden while Kitty wandered the property. She spent a lot of time in the ruins of the mansion and at the hilltop cemetery. Ororo seemed to understand that Kitty needed to be alone. But whenever Kitty stopped by the garden, Ororo was always ready with a hug.

That evening - after dinner - Ororo grabbed Kitty and Emma by the hand and dragged them outside. There was a small, sandy beach next to the boathouse. On the beach, Ororo exuberantly stripped off her clothes and dove into the water. Emma and Kitty settled down on a patch of grass to watch.

Kitty watched Ororo execute a dive from the boathouse pier and then frowned as she realized something, "Emma, does Ororo ever fly? I haven't seen her use her powers since I got here."

"No," answered Emma. "The last time she flew was on that mission in Antarctic. She mostly uses her powers to influence the weather: to make sure we have rain - or to fend off a bad storm. She also makes sure the boathouse never gets too cold in the winter."

"But she used to love to fly," replied Kitty thoughtfully.

"Things have changed."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the two women. Kitty finally broke it.

"Emma, thank you for taking care of Ororo."

When there was no reply, Kitty turned to look at Emma. The other woman was staring off into the distance with unblinking eyes. Kitty automatically followed Emma's gaze and saw nothing unusual - just some of the trees bordering the far side of the lake. Then Kitty looked back at Emma and noticed for the first time that the other woman was shivering.

* * *

_Off in the distance, Emma could see Ororo riding her winds and calling down lightning in her battle with the Young Guard._

_Sam, Roberto, and Cain were keeping Magneto occupied while Logan kept out of sight and slowly worked his way behind Magneto. That was the plan: the rest of them would distract Magneto until Logan could get in the killing blow._

_Emma was helpless. Ever since the fight with the telepath, she hadn't been able to use any of her powers. The only thing she could do was hide behind a pile of rubble and pray._

_Then, impossibly loud over the din of battle, there was a wet, ripping sound._

_Something clanged onto the ground beside Emma._

_It was Cain's helmet. Emma tried to shove it out of the way, but it was heavier than she would have thought._

_That's when she realized that Cain's head was still in the helmet._

* * *

"Emma?" asked a suddenly worried Kitty as she reached out to grab the other woman by the shoulder. But Ororo intervened, stopping Kitty by gently touching her on the forearm.

Still naked and soaking wet from her swim, Ororo sat down behind Emma, wrapping her arms and legs around her and resting the side of her face against the back of Emma's head. Then she slowly began rocking Emma back and forth.

After a few moments, Emma stopped shaking. Suddenly, she looked around in surprise.

"I... What?" she asked disjointedly.

Kitty hurriedly got to her feet.

"You dozed off, Emma. Wait here while I get a towel."

As she returned with the towel, Kitty admitted to herself that the Emma Frost that she had disliked - and even hated - for so many years was gone.

* * *

They got Ororo dried off. However, she didn't particularly want to get dressed. She darted away when Kitty approached carrying her clothes. Then after Ororo got about a dozen yards away, she stopped and looked back at Kitty with amusement glinting in her eye.

Kitty took a few steps towards Ororo - who promptly retreated a couple of steps backwards along the beach.

Kitty shook her head and looked at Emma.

Emma shrugged, "She gets like that sometimes. She wants you to play tag with her. It lasts for a half-hour or so, then she lets you catch her."

"That's silly. I won't... YEEE-HAAH!"

Ororo had relaxed when Kitty started protesting that she wouldn't play Ororo's little game. So Ororo was momentarily caught flat-footed when Kitty took off after her. However, Ororo recovered quickly and sprinted for the wood line at an impressive rate.

Unfortunately for Ororo, she forgot that while she had to go around trees, Kitty could simply go through them. Very soon, both women ended up in a laughing tangle of arms and legs on the forest floor.

After tenderly kissing Kitty on the forehead, Ororo scrambled out from under her. Both women got to their feet and Kitty helped Ororo pull on her cutoffs and t-shirt.

Kitty watched as Ororo buttoned her cutoffs closed.

"Ororo..." she said suddenly.

Ororo looked at Kitty.

"The bad times are over. Won't you come back to us? Please?" Kitty asked softly.

Ororo didn't respond except to put an arm around Kitty's shoulders.

As they left the woods, a robin was spooked out of a maple tree and flew off over the lake. Kitty noticed how Ororo tracked the bird's flight until it was out of sight.

* * *

Instead of tea, tonight's drink was a surprisingly smooth moonshine. Emma had traded some seed corn for a small barrel of the homemade alcohol a few months back.

Ororo sat on a nearby rug, arranging a collection of several dozen smoothly polished sticks into intricate patterns. After completing a pattern, she would stare at if for several minutes, and then pick up the sticks and construct a different arrangement.

"What are your plans?" asked Emma.

The night had cooled off very quickly. Kitty tossed some more wood into the fireplace and then used the poker to shift it about.

"I'm going to start a school," answered Kitty.

Emma looked at Kitty in surprise.

"I pulled some strings," continued Kitty as she leaned against the fireplace mantelpiece and watched the fire flicker. "The provisional government of New York State has granted me the deed to the school property. Charles' estate was a mess, but I had some friends in the Federal government who leaned on Albany to sort things out in my favor."

Her stomach slowly turning over, Emma waited for whatever was next. She had always knows that she and Ororo had no legal claim to the school property. But in the post-war chaos, she had assumed that it would be decades - if ever - before it became an issue.

Momentarily turning her attention away from the fire, Kitty looked at the suddenly still Emma, "Don't worry. You and Ororo will have the boathouse, the lake, and the surrounding land. I'll use the rest. I'll put that in writing, if you want."

"That won't be necessary. I trust your word," said Emma quietly.

Kitty took another sip from her drink.

"What kind of students will you be taking?" asked Emma cautiously.

Kitty smiled at the fire, "Anyone who wants to learn about reading, writing, and arithmetic. It doesn't matter if they're human or mutant. I don't care who they are."

"That's your entire curricula?"

"Eventually I plan on having advanced classes dealing with higher math, physics, and computer science. Those are the subjects that I know best."

"That seems a bit narrow."

Kitty gave Emma an amused, yet challenging, look, "Maybe it is. Can you recommend anyone with teaching experience in other subjects?"

Now Emma looked away and began staring into the fire, "I don't think that I can be a teacher again, Kitty."

"Why not?"

Emma glanced towards Ororo, "I have other responsibilities. I..."

Emma drifted off, staring at nothing. Kitty sipped her drink and waited patiently.

Ororo got to her feet and sat next to Emma, slipping her arm around the other woman's waist. This time, it was only a few seconds before Emma came back.

"I... I can't," Emma said. "Maybe someday, Kitty, but not now."

Kitty nodded, "I understand. But keep it in mind. I'll need the help. And it doesn't have to be in the classroom."

"Kitty, why are you doing this?"

The firelight danced along with the flames, flickering patterns of light and dark across Kitty's face.

"You know about the thing in Korea?" said Kitty slowly. "The meeting between the Japanese and Chinese leadership?"

Emma sat her drink down carefully, her eyes locked on Kitty's face.

"Yes. That was you and Logan, wasn't it?"

Kitty met Emma's eyes without flinching, "Not quite. Logan wasn't there."

Emma couldn't think of anything to say.

"That wasn't the worst thing I did during the war," said Kitty slowly. "You know how we tried at first to keep it clean. No unnecessary killing or... or things like that. But it eventually got bad. Horribly bad. Looking back on it, yeah, a lot of what we did had to be done. But... But I think I'll never be right again until I do something else. Something that builds instead of destroys. Do you see what I'm trying to say?"

Emma nodded, "Yes. Yes I do."

* * *

Ororo and Emma were in bed. Ororo was spooned up against Emma, one hand on Emma's thigh and the other wrapped around her midriff.

Drifting in and out of sleep, Emma heard herself sleepily ask a question that she had always wondered about.

"Ororo, were you and Kitty ever lovers?"

Ororo leaned her head forward and kissed Emma behind the ear.

Emma jerked in surprise, now fully awake.

Had she dreamed it, or had Ororo just whispered a word?

Emma wasn't sure, but it had sounded like, "Daughter."

* * *

The next morning, Kitty and Ororo walked out to the garden together while Emma finished preparing lunch. Kitty planned to hike up to the ruins of the mansion and sketch out some ideas for rebuilding the partially-intact west-wing.

Back in the kitchen, Emma covered the large bowl containing the vegetables that would be their lunch. About to leave the boathouse and join Ororo in the garden, Emma paused thoughtfully. Then she turned and walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, and into the den.

The den was dominated by a large oak desk and chair. A dozen or so large bookshelves covered the walls. The room saw little use and everything in it was covered with dust.

Not really knowing why she was doing it, Emma had salvaged as many textbooks as possible from the ruins of the mansion. She had filled the bookshelves in the den with them.

Emma scanned the shelves. The books were all arranged in neat categories.

There were enough for a dozen students at all grade levels, she thought to herself. Of course, they could have the students double up on the books until they got more...

They would need a full inventory of the textbooks. But Emma could already see a few areas that were clearly deficient.

Lost in thought, instead of lost in memories, Emma took a notepad and a pencil from the desk and began making a list.

* * *

Just before leaving the garden, Kitty turned to Ororo.

"Windrider," Kitty said softly. "The children are coming back. And they will need someone to teach them how to fly."

By the time Emma got out to the garden, Kitty was gone. Ororo was standing in the middle of the carrots, arms folded underneath her breasts as she stared up at the cloudless sky with an unreadable expression on what was left of her face.

Emma tucked the list she had made into a pocket of her dress. She would show it to Kitty the next time she saw her. Then she walked towards Ororo to see what she was doing.

Still looking up, Ororo spread her arms wide as if to embrace heaven itself.

Suddenly, there was a rush of wind.


End file.
